by Solange Leibovici | Vol 23 (1) 2005
“Applied literature” appears to be replacing Freud’s “applied psychoanalysis” in which literary works are interpreted by means of psychoanalytic theories. The starting point here is that insights from depth-psychology operate within literature itself which raises certain questions and which in themselves could influence the further development of psychoanalysis. In the “postmodern” novel, in which preoccupations with family and relations reminds one of certain Freudian case studies, the nearly forgotten concept of “hysteria” makes a comeback. Siri Hustvedt’s novel What I loved serves as an illustration of this. This novel is analysed as a story in which hysteria is displayed in several different ways and forms the nucleus of a scene in which the author shows us a glimpse of her desire.
by Marc De Cuyper | Vol 20 (1) 2002
This is a review of Elaine Showalter’s book concerning the modern appearance of hysteria. We focused mainly on the Incest Recovery Movement and Multiple Personality Disorder, the new way for the hysteric to give shape to the impossible sexual relation. What can properly be defined as the forclusion of the subject and desire in modern trauma therapy, leaves only the option of the Real and its psychotic effects open to the patient.
by Mattias Desmet | Vol 24 (3/4) 2006
This paper presents the text of the public defence of a Doctorate that explores and evaluates the possibilities for quantification of the hysterical and obsessional dimension in neurotic psychopathology. It concludes that these psychoanalytic constructs are quantifiable to a certain extent, but that the validity of these measurements, being comparable to those of psychological constructs in general, is consequently too limited to support the testing of these theoretical statements using a positivistic approach.
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